Civil rights veteran had questioned ability to do project justice

3:33 AM,
Apr. 30, 2013

Ai Qui Hopen has sculpted for nearly 20 years.

Written by

Michael Cass
| The Tennessean

A Chinese-born artist competing for the chance to produce a civil rights memorial calls an outspoken Nashville activist a hero but says he's wrong to question her age, ethnicity and ability to do the project justice.

Ai Qiu Hopen, one of five finalists for a public art project being organized by the Metro Arts Commission, said the students who helped sit in at Nashville lunch counters made them accessible to people like her, too.

The agency has been criticized by some veterans of Nashville's civil rights movement for looking only at out-of-state artists in the final stage and for capping the ...